A WOMAN who saw Andrew Cairns’ car shortly before it struck and killed schoolgirl Ruby Cropper has told a jury it was the worst driving she has ever seen.

Karrie Anne Higham was driving along New Road, Radcliffe, on the afternoon of August 10, 2020, after finishing work when she spotted 36-year-old Cairns’ Suzuki Alto hurtling towards her.

It was going so fast that she was convinced there would be a collision and so looked in her rear view mirror as it passed her.

“I saw a girl in the air. I can’t get that image out of my head,” said Mrs Higham, who stopped and went to help the little girl.

She added that Cairns had been driving aggressively at 50-60mph.

“It was as though he was on a race track, trying to control the car as it was at really high speed. All this was at supersonic speed,” she said.

“It is the worst driving I have ever seen in 20 years of driving.

“I knew he was going to crash because he was going that fast.”

Another witness, Louise Robinson, was walking along New Road with her children when she saw Ruby on the pavement looking briefly up the road and then jogging into the carriageway as if eager to get to the park on the other side.

Miss Robinson saw Cairns' car approaching fast.

"I wanted to say 'stop' but it just wouldn't come out," she said.

"I didn't get it out of my mouth quick enough."

Miss Robinson told the court how, after hitting Ruby, Cairns initially slowed before driving off.

"He just looked at me. He stared right into my eyes. He did not stop," said Miss Robinson, who went to help the little girl lying in the road.

Injuries to 11-year-old Ruby were so severe that she died in hospital two days later.

Cairns, of Rupert Street, Radcliffe, has admitted causing death by careless driving but denies causing death by dangerous driving and is on trial at a Nightingale Court based at the Hilton Hotel in Manchester.

The jury has previously heard how other drivers also saw Cairns speeding before he struck Ruby, overtaking vehicles at high speed and driving with one hand on the steering wheel while the other was out of the window and resting on the roof.

After hitting Ruby at an estimated 44mph and propelling her 46ft up the road, Cairns did not stop. He drove off and abandoned his car before walking home and only later phoned police to admit what he had done.

Jamie Baxter, prosecuting, told the jury that Cairns’ driving had been so bad that afternoon that it was “a collision waiting to happen".

The trial continues.